Nuclear power start-up stock NuScale Power (SMR -11.93%) disappointed investors with its second-quarter financial report last night, and the stock is down 8.2% through 12:15 p.m. Friday.
Heading into the report, analysts forecast NuScale would generate about $11.7 million in revenue but remain unprofitable. Actual revenue was only $8.1 million, however, and NuScale lost $0.13 per share.
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NuScale Power Q2 earnings
NuScale doesn't actually have any reactors yet, so it wasn't expected to report any earnings. Revenue was weaker than analysts had hoped, but really, neither revenue nor profit was actually top of mind for NuScale investors this week.
Cash burn is more of a concern, and NuScale is burning cash, with $56.1 million consumed so far in the first half of 2025. Still, this was less cash than NuScale burned in the first half of 2024, so arguably good news for the stock -- especially with NuScale reminding that it ended the quarter with "cash, cash equivalents, and short- and long-term investments of $489.9 million." That's enough cash to keep NuScale in business for nearly five more years at its current cash-burn rate.
Sell NuScale stock after earnings?
So why are investors selling NuScale stock today? That's hard to say. The lack of any major new announcements in the earnings press release -- something to keep the momentum going -- is probably one factor. Lingering concern that Fluor might begin selling NuScale shares and flood the market after converting 15 million Class B NuScale shares into Class A shares that can be traded is probably another.
Ultimately, though, NuScale remains a speculative investment, the success of which will depend on its ability to build and market small modular reactors to customers years down the line. In that context, yesterday's earnings report...really didn't matter much at all.
